The expanding world of small RNAs in plants

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Abstract

Plant genomes encode various small RNAs that function in distinct, yet overlapping, genetic and epigenetic silencing pathways. However, the abundance and diversity of small-RNA classes varies among plant species, suggesting coevolution between environmental adaptations and gene-silencing mechanisms. Biogenesis of small RNAs in plants is well understood, but we are just beginning to uncover their intricate regulation and activity. Here, we discuss the biogenesis of plant small RNAs, such as microRNAs, secondary siRNAs and heterochromatic siRNAs, and their diverse cellular and developmental functions, including in reproductive transitions, genomic imprinting and paramutation. We also discuss the diversification of small-RNA-directed silencing pathways through the expansion of RNA-dependent RNA polymerases, DICER proteins and ARGONAUTE proteins.

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A diverse and evolutionarily fluid set of microRNAs in Arabidopsis thaliana.

Ramya Rajagopalan, Hervé Vaucheret, Jerry Trejo … (2006)

To better understand the diversity of small silencing RNAs expressed in plants, we employed high-throughput pyrosequencing to obtain 887,000 reads corresponding to Arabidopsis thaliana small RNAs. They represented 340,000 unique sequences, a substantially greater diversity than previously obtained in any species. Most of the small RNAs had the properties of heterochromatic small interfering RNAs (siRNAs) associated with DNA silencing in that they were preferentially 24 nucleotides long and mapped to intergenic regions. Their density was greatest in the proximal and distal pericentromeric regions, with only a slightly preferential propensity to match repetitive elements. Also present were 38 newly identified microRNAs (miRNAs) and dozens of other plausible candidates. One miRNA mapped within an intron of DICER-LIKE 1 (DCL1), suggesting a second homeostatic autoregulatory mechanism for DCL1 expression; another defined the phase for siRNAs deriving from a newly identified trans-acting siRNA gene (TAS4); and two depended on DCL4 rather than DCL1 for their accumulation, indicating a second pathway for miRNA biogenesis in plants. More generally, our results revealed the existence of a layer of miRNA-based control beyond that found previously that is evolutionarily much more fluid, employing many newly emergent and diverse miRNAs, each expressed in specialized tissues or at low levels under standard growth conditions.

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Transcriptome-wide mapping reveals widespread dynamic-regulated pseudouridylation of ncRNA and mRNA.

Schraga Schwartz, Douglas Bernstein, Maxwell Mumbach … (2014)

Pseudouridine is the most abundant RNA modification, yet except for a few well-studied cases, little is known about the modified positions and their function(s). Here, we develop Ψ-seq for transcriptome-wide quantitative mapping of pseudouridine. We validate Ψ-seq with spike-ins and de novo identification of previously reported positions and discover hundreds of unique sites in human and yeast mRNAs and snoRNAs. Perturbing pseudouridine synthases (PUS) uncovers which pseudouridine synthase modifies each site and their target sequence features. mRNA pseudouridinylation depends on both site-specific and snoRNA-guided pseudouridine synthases. Upon heat shock in yeast, Pus7p-mediated pseudouridylation is induced at >200 sites, and PUS7 deletion decreases the levels of otherwise pseudouridylated mRNA, suggesting a role in enhancing transcript stability. rRNA pseudouridine stoichiometries are conserved but reduced in cells from dyskeratosis congenita patients, where the PUS DKC1 is mutated. Our work identifies an enhanced, transcriptome-wide scope for pseudouridine and methods to dissect its underlying mechanisms and function. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

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Pseudouridine profiling reveals regulated mRNA pseudouridylation in yeast and human cells

Thomas Carlile, Maria Rojas-Duran, Boris Zinshteyn … (2014)

Post-transcriptional modification of RNA nucleosides occurs in all living organisms. Pseudouridine, the most abundant modified nucleoside in non-coding RNAs 1 , enhances the function of transfer RNA and ribosomal RNA by stabilizing RNA structure 2–8 . mRNAs were not known to contain pseudouridine, but artificial pseudouridylation dramatically affects mRNA function – it changes the genetic code by facilitating non-canonical base pairing in the ribosome decoding center 9,10 . However, without evidence of naturally occurring mRNA pseudouridylation, its physiological was unclear. Here we present a comprehensive analysis of pseudouridylation in yeast and human RNAs using Pseudo-seq, a genome-wide, single-nucleotide-resolution method for pseudouridine identification. Pseudo-seq accurately identifies known modification sites as well as 100 novel sites in non-coding RNAs, and reveals hundreds of pseudouridylated sites in mRNAs. Genetic analysis allowed us to assign most of the new modification sites to one of seven conserved pseudouridine synthases, Pus1–4, 6, 7 and 9. Notably, the majority of pseudouridines in mRNA are regulated in response to environmental signals, such as nutrient deprivation in yeast and serum starvation in human cells. These results suggest a mechanism for the rapid and regulated rewiring of the genetic code through inducible mRNA modifications. Our findings reveal unanticipated roles for pseudouridylation and provide a resource for identifying the targets of pseudouridine synthases implicated in human disease 11–13 .